ambassador to the united nations, is viewed as president obama's top pick to replace secretary of state hillary clinton, who plans to step down early next year. both senators mccain and lindsey graham previously vowed to block her possible nomination. i'm joined now by dan lothian at the white house for us. and dan, what do we hear from mccain and graham this weekend? it seems maybe they provided a little bit of wiggle room now. >> it certainly does appear that way. what we're seeing is a change in tone. there had been sort of this harsh rhetoric they wanted to block this nomination, said they would block this nomination. and now there seems to be this tone where they want to give susan rice a chance to explain herself, that they're willing to sit down and talk over these issues with her. at a listen to what senator mccain had to say about this over the weekend. >> i think she deserves the ability and the opportunity to explain herself and her position, just as she said. but she is not the problem. the problem is the president of the united states. >> now, again, we should point out tha